Preparing nevisIDM for Use with OpenOffice Templates (adnooprint)

Starting with v2.6, nevisIDM is able to use OpenOffice writer documents as templates to print jobs. In this chapter, the required setup is discussed.

Adnooprint version 1.1.0.0 uses OpenOffice version 3.2 that has a memory leak issue: https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=41675.

To eliminate this problem with adnooprint version 1.2.0.x, we upgraded to LibreOffice 5.3.6.1.

Installation of adnooprint and OpenOffice

Installation of adnooprint version 1.1.0.0 and OpenOffice

Install the OpenOffice server-wrapper package adnooprint using the following command:

Linux: rpm -i adnooprint<version>.i486.rpm

If there is no OpenOffice (Writer, version 3.2.0) installation in /opt/ directory, adnooprint can be used as an installer for a minimalized headless OpenOffice server instance.

Download and unpack the following file:

Linux: OOo_3.2.0_LinuxIntel_install_wJRE_en-US.tar.gz

The file is located at the following path: http://archive.apache.org/dist/incubator/ooo/stable/3.2.0/

Install the required OpenOffice components with the following command:

adnooprint install OpenOffice <download dir>

For an OpenOffice installation, the following Linux system requirements are not resolved by the installer:

• libXext.so.6
• libX11.so.6
• libfreetype.so.6

Create and start an instance of adnooprint with the following command:

adnooprint handover RTGROUP=nvbgroup RTOWNER=nvauser

Installation of adnooprint version 1.2.0.x and LibreOffice

Install the LibreOffice server-wrapper package adnooprint with the following command:

Linux: rpm -i adnooprint<version>.rpm

Install LibreOffice with the following command:

yum install libreoffice-5.3.6.1

• Note: If you are upgrading from adnooprint 1.1.0.0 then you have to remove the already installed OpenOffice packages first (you have to stop any running adnooprint instances beforehand). You can use a command similar to the following: rpm -e --nodeps $(rpm -qa | grep openoffice)

After installing adnooprint, OPENOFFICE_HOME is set to usr/lib64/libreoffice by default, which is the installation folder of LibreOffice.

• Note: If you are upgrading from adnooprint 1.1.0.0 then you have to adjust manually the OPENOFFICE_HOME configuration in the env.conf file of your adnooprint instance. adnooprint uses the following path to start the LibreOffice service: $OPENOFFICE_HOME/program/soffice.bin. Set your OPENOFFICE_HOME accordingly.

Create and start an instance of adnooprint with the following command:

adnooprint handover RTGROUP=nvbgroup RTOWNER=nvauser

Configuration of adnooprint

The following command shows every possible command and option for adnooprint, including configuration and diagnostic tools:

adnooprint

The following command opens a text editor:

adnooprint config

In the text editor, you can set the following variables:

RTOWNER=nvauser
RTGROUP=nvbgroup
OPENOFFICE_SERVER_HOST=localhost
OPENOFFICE_SERVER_PORT=8912

Make sure that the host, port and rtowner/rtgroup settings correspond to the nevisIDM configuration. For more information, see Configuration of nevisIDM.

To keep OpenOffice running, the owner-user has to have a home directory, or has to be able to create and write to the directory /tmp/.openoffice.

After saving a configuration file, restart the adnooprint instance with the following command:

adnooprint restart

Configuration of nevisIDM

Use the following command

nevisidm config idm

to set the variables corresponding to the adnooprint settings:

application.modules.printing.host=localhost
application.modules.printing.port=8912
application.modules.printing.printer=

Restart nevisIDM with the following command:

nevisidm restart

If application.modules.printing.printer is not set, the default printer is used, that is, the default printer of the host where the OpenOffice installation resides.

OpenOffice on Kubernetes

On Kubernetes installations, nevisIDM requires a LibreOffice printing service to be available.

Creating a docker image

Prerequisite is to have an image available that provides the LibreOffice printing service in the container registry. Here is an example on how to create one, if it's not already available. Save the following as Dockerfile and startup.sh.

Dockerfile

FROM centos:7
MAINTAINER nevisIDM team

RUN yum -y install \
    libreoffice-headless \
    libreoffice \
    cups \
    cups-client \
    cups-bsd \
    cups-filters \
    hpijs \
    && yum clean all

# Add User
RUN useradd -r -G root,users -M print && echo print:print | chpasswd

# Configure cups and nowhere printer
RUN /usr/sbin/cupsd \
  && while [ ! -f  /var/run/cupsd.pid ]; do sleep 1; done \
  && cupsctl --remote-admin --remote-any --share-printers

# Patch the default configuration file to only enable encryption if requested
RUN sed -i 's/Port 631/Listen 0.0.0.0:631/' /etc/cups/cupsd.conf && \
    echo "ServerAlias *" >> /etc/cups/cupsd.conf && \
    echo "DefaultEncryption Never" >> /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

COPY startup.sh startup.sh
RUN chmod 755 startup.sh

EXPOSE 8912 631

CMD ./startup.sh

startup.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Start soffice
/usr/bin/soffice --nologo --nofirststartwizard --headless --norestore --invisible "--accept=socket,host=0.0.0.0,port=8912,tcpNoDelay=1;urp;" &

# Start cups server
/usr/sbin/cupsd -f

fg %1

Then run the following command to create the image:

docker build -t ooprint:1.0 .

It is a CentOS-based image, which uses CUPS, and LibreOffice packages to provide the printing service.

Then push it to the registry used by the Kubernetes cluster:

docker tag ooprint:1.0 <registry>/ooprint:1.0
docker push <registry>/ooprint:1.0

note

The created image is intended as an example, do not use it in live setups.

Deploying the printing service

Create the necessary Kubernetes resources so the service is available. The following example manifest can be used with previously built image:

ooprint.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: ooprint
  labels:
    app: ooprint
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: ooprint
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: ooprint
    spec:
      volumes:
        - name: ooprint-config
          configMap:
            name: ooprint-config
            defaultMode: 0750
      containers:
        - name: ooprint
          image: <container_registry>/ooprint:1.0
          ports:
            - containerPort: 631
              name: print1
            - containerPort: 8912
              name: print2
          volumeMounts:
            - name: ooprint-config
              mountPath: /etc/cups/printers.conf
              subPath: printers.conf
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    app: ooprint
  name: ooprint
spec:
  ports:
    - name: print1
      port: 631
      protocol: TCP
      targetPort: 631
    - name: print2
      port: 8912
      protocol: TCP
      targetPort: 8912
  selector:
    app: ooprint
  sessionAffinity: None
  type: ClusterIP
---
apiVersion: v1
data:
  printers.conf: |
    <Printer nowhere>
    UUID urn:uuid:1eade1e7-6a28-36ac-7368-abb0d663282e
    Info nowhere
    DeviceURI file:/dev/null
    State Idle
    StateTime 1628593165
    Type 4
    Accepting Yes
    Shared Yes
    JobSheets none none
    QuotaPeriod 0
    PageLimit 0
    KLimit 0
    OpPolicy default
    ErrorPolicy stop-printer
    </Printer>
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: ooprint-config
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  labels:
    app: ooprint
  name: ooprint-storage
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  storageClassName: <storage_class>

First edit the provided manifest:

• Replace <container_registry> with the one used in the previous step.
• Replace <storage_class> with a Kubernetes StorageClass thats available on the Kubernetes cluster, and supports ReadWriteMany access mode. As an example on Azure azurefile, and on OpenShift/Rancher a StorageClass such as longhorn can be used.

Then run the following command, <namespace> is the namespace where nevisIDM is deployed.

kubectl apply -f ooprint.yaml -n <namespace>

This creates the following resources:

• ooprint Deployment and Service used to access the printing service.
• ooprint-config ConfigMap which contains an example configuration for the printing service.
• ooprint-storage PersistentVolumeClaim used by nevisIDM to store the generated PDFs.

nevisAdmin4 configuration

Use a Generic nevisIDM Instance Setting pattern and configure the following properties:

application.modules.printing.host=ooprint
application.modules.printing.port=8912
application.modules.printing.dir.target=/openoffice/pdfstorage/

In the inventory specify a custom-volume for the nevisIDM service which uses the previously created PersistentVolumeClaim:

services:
- idm:
    kubernetes:
      replicas: 1
      custom-volumes:
      - volumeMount:
          mountPath: /openoffice/pdfstorage
          name: ooprint-storage
        volume:
          name: ooprint-storage
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: ooprint-storage